The Russian Grand Prix venue hasn’t been one of Ricciardo’s favorites in the past, and he knew he was heading for the weekend he needed to do something different to change things
After spending time last week looking at onboard footage from previous seasons, as well as looking at some data, he concluded that the way to progress was to try to be more extreme with his setup.
Moving away from a comfortable and easy-to-drive car, the Australian found more lap time and qualified fifth
Reflecting on what he had discovered in preparation for the weekend, he said: “I think last year, looking at her, even looking on board now, the car looked a little too beautiful to drive And at the end it was slow
– So it was just trying to find the comfortable in the uncomfortable I was just looking at a ton of boards and just going over the things that we changed over the weekend of last year and where it escaped meat ????
He added: « I normally feel if you are not particularly strong on a circuit, there is normally a little reason Maybe the setup you normally like is not working for that circuit
– So you have to push yourself to do something that might not work on other tracks, but could work here So think a little outside the box and try some setup items on the car that , maybe in other places, would scare you
– I think part of it was trying to get out of my comfort zone with this, to be a little more aggressive fundamentally on the setup Take some more risksâ ????
Ricciardo’s efforts paid off as he led the Q2 session, but was unable to repeat that time in Q3 when he finished fifth overall
He felt his last effort was compromised by not putting his tires quite in the correct operating window. but he knew that even matching what he did in Q2 would be a tall order
– I was watching it now with the engineers and I think to be honest it was just a little bit of tire preparation, â ?? he said – So asking the problem, round Q2 was probably as close to a perfect round as possible So I knew even repeating it was going to be difficult
– Normally in Q2, you put it on and there is always a little more for Q3 But everything went well in the second quarter The tires were retracted and you can even feel it coming out of the last corner to open the lap, you just feel the grip there And then Turn 2, which is like Turn 1, the bite was there and there was no lock before so It was a pretty easy turn ??
Daniel Ricciardo, Formula 1, Russian Grand Prix, Renault F1 Team, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Sochi Autodrom
News from the world – GB – Ricciardo: Making Renault the key « Uncomfortable » in the form of Sochi